Service Quality Attributes of Retail Banking

Previous research conducted by the Erol and El-Bdour 1989 in Amin and Isa 2008 has explained that the religious factor has no role in selecting the Islamic Bank in Jordan. In Malaysia, 40 percent of Muslims are encouraged to use Islamic banking with the aim of a compliance factor Haron et. Al, 1994 in Amin and Isa, 2008. It was explained that the factor of compliance with the principles of Islam shown an important role in Malaysia in determining the decision to select the bank. Meanwhile, the orientation of an advantage over Singapore motivate people to use the product and service of Islam and Muslims in Singapore further assess the existence of Islamic banks compared to non-Muslim citizens in Singapore Gerrard and Cunningham, 1997 in Amin and Isa, 2008. Karatape et al, 2005 in Amin and Isa 2008 revealed that the level of service quality measures the development in one country that produces quality services in other cultures.

C. Service Quality Attributes of Retail Banking

In order to develop marketing strategy, service marketers, especially bank marketers need to understand the service attributes that used by consumers in selecting bank. For example, consumers would use bank reputation, bank reliability, bank assurance, and physical facilities of the bank in selecting bank services. If marketers can understand which attributes are used to evaluate a service, they will be better able to manage and influence the customers evaluations and perception of the offering Crane and Clarke, 2000. Perceived quality of service tends to play an important role in high involvement industries like banking services. Banks have traditionally placed a 17 high value on customer relationships with both commercial and retail customers. In the last ten years, the nature of customer relationships in retail banking in Indonesia has been changing, especially since the advent of automatic teller machines. A survey that conducted by ISMS 2005 shows that 90 of retail banking customers in Jakarta use both bank branches and ATMs in their relationship with banks. Therefore, service quality may well be measured in terms of both personal support and technical support. The measurement of perceived service quality may remain a challenge. Previous research suggested that the dimensionality of service quality might depend on the type of services under study Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Babakus and Boller, 1992. Based on this background, studies have investigated various attributes, which determine consumers perception of service quality of retail banking industry Sureschandar et al., 2002. A study of service quality in bank setting by Avkiran 1994 in Amin and Isa 2008 was conducted to develop an instrument for measuring customer service quality as perceived by bank branch customers. He designed and examined six-dimension model for service quality in banking industry responsiveness, empathy, staff conduct, access, communication, and reliability with 27items. The six dimensions conceptualized at the start with 27 items were empirically reduced to 17 items across four discriminating factors. The dimensions which emerged were staff conduct, credibility, communication, and access to teller services. The exploratory study conducted by Stafford 1996 18 reported the distinct elements attributes of bank service quality as perceived by customers. Seven attributes were found in assessing bank service quality. The first attribute, named bank atmosphere; included cleanliness, as well as an overall positive and courteous attitude by employees kindness, friendliness, and pleasantness. The second attribute, relationship, indicates the importance of a personal relationship with the bank employees, where customers are recognized easily by long-term employee. The third attribute, rates and charges, indicates that low costs and high interest rates can affect an individuals perception of bank service quality. The fourth attributes, available and convenient services, indicates a full array of services that available, easily accessible and convenient. The fifth attribute, ATMs, indicates available, convenient, and working automatic teller machines. The sixth attribute, reliabilityhonesty, indicates the importance of a solid bank rating and honest, reliable employee. The seventh attribute, teller, indicates adequate and accessible teller. Bahia and Nantel 2000 conducted a study to develop a reliable and valid scale for the measurement of the perceived service quality of retail banking in Canada. They argued that the universality of the five dimensions of SERVQUAL across different types of services had been questioned in a number of subsequent studies Amin and Isa, 2008. They also argued that these five dimensions are not fully generic. As found by Carman 1990 in Amin and Isa 2008, it is often necessary to incorporate additional items to dimensions because they are particularly important for some service categories. Another critique addressed to 19 SERVQUAL since it has focused on the first marketing mix element i.e. product to improve quality. Further they developed a measurement of perceived service quality with reference to Parasuraman et al in Amin and Isa 2008 original ten dimensions and some additional items which are important to retail banking service, then they purified and tested the measurement scale. Based on this procedure, they proposed a scale that was called as bank service quality BSQ. The BSQ comprises 31 items, which span six dimensions: effectiveness and assurance, access, price, tangibles, service portfolio, and reliability. Sureschandar, Rajendran, and Anantharaman 2002 aspired to develop an empirical model of service quality with a specific focus on the banking sector. The objectives of their study are: 1 to identify the critical factors of service quality from the customers perspective; 2 to develop an instrument to measure customer-perceived service quality based on the identified factors with a specific focus on the banking sector; 3 to empirically test the proposed instrument for unidimensionality, reliability and validity using a confirmatory factor analysis approach. They proposed the 5 critical factors of service quality from the customers perspective i.e. human element of service delivery, core service or service product, systematization of service delivery, tangibles of service servicescapes, and corporate social image. These factors resulted from modifying the original SERVQUAL instrument, by adding andor reducing other relevant factors. The result of empirically tests for unidimensionality, reliability, and validity show that all the five factors of customer perceived service quality 20 have strong evidence for unidimensionality, reliability, convergent discriminant, and criterion-related validities.

D. Customer Satisfaction